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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27712675">Family Not Coworkers</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosella1356/pseuds/Rosella1356'>Rosella1356</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Found Family, Gift Giving, Gunshots, Hurt/Comfort, Love Languages, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Not canon compliant post Avengers, Other, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark buys things</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:28:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27712675</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosella1356/pseuds/Rosella1356</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha and Clint have been friends for a long time, after the battle of New York, they move into Tony's tower. Over the months, Tony starts getting involved in their tiny family. Before long so does Bruce. It's not perfect but its theirs.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bruce Banner &amp; Clint Barton, Bruce Banner &amp; Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner &amp; Tony Stark, Clint Barton &amp; Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton &amp; Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Family Not Coworkers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It started in Budapest. Of course, it started in Budapest. That was the beginning of the Avengers. Or at least the first time any of the members of the Avengers treated each other like family, instead of someone needed for a mission. The first time that one of them went down. </p>
<p>	Clint was out of commission for the rest of the mission after the bullet went into his leg as he shoved Natasha away from what would have been a lethal shot. She fell on the ground, before she carried him to safety. If anyone ever asked, she’d be able to tell them, that she didn’t feel a thing. That she owed him a debt for saving her. But in reality that was the first time someone was ever willing to care about her for more than just her ability to seduce, to kill, or to manipulate, and she wasn’t about to lose that.</p>
<p>	When she got home from working the rest of the case, she tossed him a stupid hat that she had picked up from the locker room of one of the facilities she raided. </p>
<p>	He wore it almost anytime they had downtime and were in the same apartment. A testament to the fact that he knew what that gift was. It was an acknowledgement, that it would be the two of them against each other.</p>
<p>	Ever since then, they’d bring back a gift for the other every mission where they didn’t see each other. Tony made them all floors in the new tower, he gave them a home. And the very first thing that Natasha did when she walked into the new place was throw a damn iron man plushy at Clint’s head that she had found in the middle of the wreckage that she went back to help with after the battle. </p>
<p>	Clint scoffed at her as if he had something better up his sleeve. Turned out that she shouldn’t bet against the archer having one upped her, because he had grabbed one of the god’s daggers and inscribed her name on it. Her dagger now.</p>
<p>	Tony raised an eyebrow at the pair of them but didn’t say a word. </p>
<p>	Life went on. They were called on missions that weren’t Avenger level worthy. Natasha pointed out that if they were meant to be avengers, anything that requires any of them is in fact avenger’s level. That had gotten her an hour chew out session from Fury. She was still pretty sure she was right. </p>
<p>	Especially since Tony was waiting for her when she got home with a cup of her favorite tea in his hands. He pushed it into her hands. “Kids in danger never sits well even once you’re home,” he murmured before disappearing. </p>
<p>	That’s the day that she realized that she had thought she was still going in alone when they didn’t send her in with Clint, but they weren't. Tony was with her anytime she left the tower. Either in the gear she was carrying made with his tech, or from her phone where she could call him. And she realized right then, that she could flip open her phone on any given mission and say she couldn’t do it alone, and he’d be there. </p>
<p>	She slipped right back out of the tower and ignored the text that immediately came in from Clint. She had missed when Tony became a part of their little group, but if he was going to be her invisible back up, he was going to get a keepsake. And the storage system at SHIELD was always a terrible system. If Captain America, the king of bold actions, could sneak in, a spy could get in. </p>
<p>	She had grabbed a simple key ring for Clint, and he was going to keep his mouth shut about the fact she’s going to get something more sentimental for Tony. This was his first time being a part of the family, so he had to have something that reflected it. </p>
<p>	There in the back of the evidence she had dragged back was a nice singular leather glove with the fingers cut off with electrical burns on it. Something that reminded her of Tony, and something real. She dropped it on his desk in his lab while he was in the kitchen. Jarvis would tell him if he asked, where her words weren’t necessary. </p>
<p>	Clint stared at her through the vents in shock. He took the key ring, and he kept thinking. Because Natasha didn’t trust, except for one person. That person was him, and he had taken a bullet for her. So, he had no clue why Natasha would suddenly include him in her definition of family. </p>
<p>	The next mission was his and things went wrong. Someone sold them out, and SHIELD had a damn leak, and if he wasn’t minutes away from death, he’d call to cuss out Fury. Instead, he dialed Natasha’s number because he didn’t want to die without her hearing his voice. </p>
<p>	“Clint, aren’t you on mission?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah, but things are hairy and I’m not making it out without backup.”</p>
<p>	“Where are you?” Her voice asked no questions. She was not accepting an answer that was not a direct location. </p>
<p>	“I’m in a warehouse outside of the city, Nat. There’s no backup coming, but there’s a spy among spies, and you need to watch your back.”</p>
<p>	“Fucking hell, why are you calling me? I can’t get to you.”</p>
<p>	“Right, but no one can,” Clint said softly. “And I wanted to say goodbye and give you a fighting chance.”</p>
<p>	Natasha closed her eyes. Tony was in meetings right now, and Jarvis wouldn’t know for sure to call him out. That was too much for a system still mostly new. “Jarvis, get Tony on the line, now.”</p>
<p>	“He’s busy.”</p>
<p>	“I am aware, but Clint is accepting death, and I need iron man right now more than whoever the hell needs Tony Stark.”</p>
<p>	“Natasha, this is so not a great time,” Tony said. His voice filtered through to Clint too, and he was super confused as well. </p>
<p>	“Clint’s in danger, he’s got no backup, and I can’t reach him before he’s dead.”</p>
<p>	“Where?” </p>
<p>	This time Jarvis listed off coordinates, and Natasha heard the whirling of his suit around him. She swallowed down her fear. Because Tony was taking care of it.</p>
<p>	“Natasha, do me a favor while I go save bird brain from whatever mess he’s gotten into, please get to SI and convince China not to pull from the deal after the CEO flew out of the meeting room in the middle of negotiations.”</p>
<p>	And that’s exactly what happened. Natasha put out fires at a company that she really wasn’t a member of. Tony saved Clint from almost certain death. Clint just stared wide eyes between them as he finally put the pieces together. </p>
<p>	Natasha called Tony family because if she was in trouble, she could call, and somehow Tony would help find a way to get out of trouble. She called him family, because he had become a member. So, from now on Tony kept getting little gifts from the both of them after every mission. Although now, neither one went in without a comm linked up to Jarvis on the off chance that everything went up into the air again. None of them wanted to be on the receiving side of the deathly decisions that might follow that. </p>
<p>	Tony had to go to Tokyo because Pepper wanted a new SI cooperation building, and Tony was the CEO and the head researcher and the superhero. And there were a great many days that Tony wished he did at least one of those things less often. He was not a one man machine, he was just a human too. Still, when he saw a stupid pokemon shop with tiny plushies, he stopped inside. He bought Natasha a Charizard and he got Clint an Eevee because those seemed to fit. </p>
<p>	When he got home exhausted, he placed them outside their doors. He got pulled into Clint’s room and placed on the sofa. He woke up 48 hours later with all of his work done for him and a smiley face on a post-it note. </p>
<p>	Bruce watched the team. He knew that Natasha and Clint were closer than any of the rest of them. Anyone with eyes could see it in the ways that they moved around each other as if they were the safe harbors for anything that could jump out of the shadows. What he didn’t expect was to slowly witness Tony integrating into that system with fluid ease. The way that Tony somehow ended up moving along with the two of them as if he was a member of the two person team. </p>
<p>	One day he noticed that Natasha was having a bad day. He couldn’t really ask about her past. Too many dark secrets that would make him want to break all kinds of bones, and that type of anger tended to result in him sending a beast out to start a fight with anything and everything. He was getting used to it. </p>
<p>	He reached to call Clint before realizing that he was out on one of those super-secret missions. Then, he reached for Tony’s only to be notified that he was on the other coast putting some deals in place for the company. He realized that Natasha didn’t have any of her normal people to lean on, and she didn’t lock herself away. At least not for every moment, which meant that she was giving him and Steve a chance to see. </p>
<p>	He knocked on her door a couple hours later with a hand-knitted blanket. </p>
<p>	Her eyes locked with his, and the question was clear to see. </p>
<p>	“I don’t go on missions. I barely enter labs that have other people in them. So, gifts from wherever I go, doesn’t work. Instead, I’ll make the here, and give you a piece of home.”</p>
<p>	Natasha quirked her mouth into a smile as she accepted the blanket. “You know that in order to be sold, you need the others,” she stated. It should have been a question, but from her lips it was nothing but a statement of fact. No room for interpretation and no room for debate.</p>
<p>	Bruce shrugged. He had figured that, but then Tony hadn’t really needed that. But, he’s not Tony Stark. And he’s not exactly the favorite of anyone.</p>
<p>	Natasha was about to close the door when Tony stormed down the hall. Natasha took a step back so that he could enter her room should he choose. </p>
<p>	Instead, he just looked her in the eyes. “Someone leaked designs of my tech to the black market again.”</p>
<p>	Bruce turned to look at Tony. “Do you need help tracking them down? Computers aren’t my main specialty, but I can try.”</p>
<p>	“Jarvis already tracked them,” Natasha answered. “What are we doing?”</p>
<p>	“I’m going to go burn down another terrorist cell that dared to touch my stuff. You’re going to find me the spy that dared to sell to terrorists from a known superhero with anger issues connected to terrorists.”</p>
<p>	Bruce watched them leave, and he decided that he’d probably need more blankets for the other two and food by the time that all of this was done. So, that’s precisely how he spent his time. Wrapping up the blankets didn’t take much time at all. Tony’s had a gold rim around it, just to be a little shit about the fact that he chose red and gold to be the colors of a superhero.</p>
<p>	Tony got home first, covered in soot and ash. He was tired, but given both of his family members were supposed to get home, he planned to stay up. </p>
<p>	“Present on the couch, food in the kitchen,” Bruce called to him. </p>
<p>	He walked over to grab the food first. A gentle thanks given, but his eyes were more drawn to the giant blanket on the couch with two smaller ones on top of it.</p>
<p>	“Red and gold is yours. Purple is for Clint. Natasha got hers early, because I wasn’t actually sure how to communicate with you guys. Figured that once I finished that, perhaps the family deserved one too.”</p>
<p>	Natasha dropped into the kitchen reaching for a soup bowl. Her eyes were hard. “Sorry, you won’t be getting a spy, Tony.”</p>
<p>	Bruce tried to avoid gaping because someone actually being able to out sneak a black widow, the black widow was practically unthinkable. Let alone something admitted to dryly. </p>
<p>	“Do I need to worry about police or government agencies showing up with a warrant to search you?”</p>
<p>	“Doubtful.”</p>
<p>	Tony nodded. “What color?”</p>
<p>	“Mine’s dull grey and black with tiny white specks. Not actually sure how he managed that.”</p>
<p>	Bruce raised an eyebrow because they were jumping conversations that he wasn’t quite caught up on, but that was directed at him. “Black yarn came with some white glitter randomly placed. Not too frequent but I switched from my straight black yarn over to the glitter one when I thought it’d look nice.”</p>
<p>	Tony hummed. “Think Clint will be happy with this development?”</p>
<p>	“You mean the one where Brucie bear as you call him has been watching our dysfunctional little family grow and has decided to join in the form of blankets and hot food,” Clint announced as he walked in throwing a broken bow onto a random surface, grabbing a blanket to throw over his shoulders, and making his way to the food.</p>
<p>	Tony gave him a look that could only be analyzed as an exasperated parent or maybe sibling. “No, I meant Steve Rogers not actually speaking a word to anyone living here. Of course, I mean fucking Bruce.”</p>
<p>	Clint turned to stare at Bruce with a spoon sticking out of his mouth from where he was eating. “I assume you want to join the family.”</p>
<p>	Bruce nodded as quickly as he could. </p>
<p>	“Good enough for me. He won’t ever be one of the murderous bunch, though.”</p>
<p>	“I’m not part of the murderous bunch,” Tony objected. </p>
<p>	“Then, explain why you aren’t upset that I literally just created a dead body on your behalf,” Natasha snarked right back. The familiar teasing comforting Bruce to no end, he couldn’t bear the thought of anything going wrong. Not after everything that they did. </p>
<p>	That night ended with cuddles under the huge blanket and a movie playing on the screen. Steve walked in on them, and they could all feel the judgement radiating off the man, but not a single one of them paid it any mind. If someone had a problem with the family unit that they created, they could take it up with the superheroes verbally.</p>
<p>	Months later, the scarlet witch hurt every single one of them, but rather than running and turning on one another. The family stuck closer together. </p>
<p>	Bruce’s hands shook under the effort to not drown in the blood. Until Clint offered him a steady shoulder to cry on underneath a blanket and a warm promise that he’d be right next to him for the rest of the week and however long it was needed. </p>
<p>	Clint was going on zero faith that he wasn’t under mind control, until Tony dropped down right next to him with brain waves, showing him the difference. He barely avoided a meltdown when he realized that Tony kept those on hand just in case something goes wrong, and Clint needed the physical reminder. </p>
<p>	Tony was a mess and a half so sure that he would be the cause of all of his family’s death with Steve standing over him telling him he failed, until Natasha brought up the Ultron program, and promised to help. </p>
<p>	Natasha would have broken down remembering her past in such vivid detail, if she didn’t know it was in the past now. Because standing in front of her wasn’t people who didn’t know her, it was her family. She had one, that she fought for.</p>
<p>	This time, the staff didn’t have anything to grab hold to corrupt. Because the family was all right there. It had nothing to twist, nothing to work with. All it had was a strong foundation. There was a suit of iron all around the world, and they had four codes needed to start them. One from a man with a large enough brain to create them and a large enough heart to leave them in reserve. One from a man with a healthy dose of self-hatred that was being worked on, who would never allow for blood to be shed needlessly. One from a woman who held the world in her hands and gave it up. And one from a man who told a worthless joke and got laughs from the important ones. </p>
<p>	Thanos came, and Thanos lost. This time he didn’t face a broken and scattered team who tried to do what was right. He was met with a family and an army. And when he tried to steal the stone’s from where they rested, he learned something more important than anything else. None of the stones could touch love, not in any real way. He could make them suffer, but he couldn’t force them not to reach for each other. And when the fight was done, he realized that was his mistake.</p>
<p>	He overpowered the suit on the Iron Man, so he wasn’t expecting the gauntlet to be raised by the Black Widow aimed at his damn arm. He broke the bird man’s bow, so he wasn’t expecting him to be tossed 8 different guns to shoot at him with. He knocked the woman out, so how could she have gotten back up, and how did he end up electrocuted by a tiny doctor with green swarming his eyes. He had taken the hulk out, so why did the next suit that Iron Man came at him with, resemble the green beast. </p>
<p>	See, Thanos lost, because what he faced was not some team of coworkers who were trying their best to be the good guys. He got knocked down by a team of family members who didn’t give one damn about whether or not they were good, because they had each other and love. That was enough. </p>
<p>	And when the battle was over, Bruce made some nice soup. Clint made some pretty jokes about a purple squidward. Tony made sure that all of the gear was repaired just in case someone else showed up one day thinking they could take on Earth’s forces. And Natasha had picked up four gems from a gauntlet and fit them to each of them to be the guardians without ever touching their power, because they didn’t need it.</p>
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